Designing a Room from the Floor Up {The Reveal}

When we were given the challenge to design a room from the floor up (literally!) at the Shaw Floors/HGTV Home Blogger’s Challenge, I really didn’t know if we could do it. I was concerned that choosing a rug in under 30 minutes would be a recipe for disaster, since I knew that rug would be the basis for all of our design decisions. But, once Rhoda and I saw the Shaw area rugs in person, we knew that it would instead be quite easy.

If you recall from my first and second posts on the Challenge, we selected the Delilah rug in Teal. It has a beautiful combination of teal, apple green, chocolate and a very neutral beige. That one rug inspired all of this:

Given the size of our bay, Rhoda and I decided to have our room serve a dual purpose – a living room and dining room combo. We painted our walls Independent Gold from the Sherwin-Williams line of HGTV Home colors. We were unsure of the color when we selected it, but once we saw it on the walls and realized it wasn’t too gold, we were ‘golden.’

Let’s take a look at the living room area, shall we? Warning: there are a lot of photos below. They were like Lays potato chips – I couldn’t pick just one.

Aren’t the turquoise chairs adorable? Well, they were originally a boring, brown stain. We were bummed that we couldn’t find a great piece of painted furniture for a shock of color in the room (you know how I LOVE my painted furniture!), and our in-house designer, Laura, convinced the powers that be to paint them for us. I think they just make the room!

As the mother of an 11.75 month old (I refuse to say she’s a year until she really is!), I totally freaked out about this glass coffee table. However, as a rug lover, I was thrilled that it looked great in the room, served its purpose, and didn’t hide the rug.

We had the hardest time figuring out a throw pillow arrangement that coordinated well together. What a sigh of relief it was when that part finally came together.

This deer head is my 2nd favorite piece in the room. When we found him in the accessory room, he was silver. I loved him, and I think Rhoda was scared of me and my creepy deer/antelopey-guy. We had him painted white and then she fell in love with him, too.

What’s my first favorite piece? Take a guess! You can see it in this shot:

Heading over to the dining room area, you can see that we kept the same color scheme going.

We were given an entire truck of fresh flowers to choose from to add some life to our rooms, and Rhoda made several beautiful arrangements. This was a low one for the dining table.

Rhoda also spied this artwork, and I’m so glad that she did because it looks great in the room. I’m really not an artwork gal. The only thing other than photographs that I hang on my walls are architectural pieces. I don’t know why I discriminate against artwork, but I really do. Am I alone in that?

Beginning September 1st, Rhoda and I will be asking (aka begging) you for your daily vote for our room in the Shaw Floors/HGTV Home Bloggers Challenge contest on Facebook. Other than having the pleasure to vote for your two favorite bloggers (that would be Rhoda and me, in case you were wondering), you will have the chance to win brand new flooring for your home. Shaw will select one voter EACH DAY for an entire month to win, and I would be doing the world’s biggest happy dance if it were YOU! I might even video said dance, so I promise you are going to want to try to win. I’m not as graceful as I once was.

Don’t want to wait until September to win flooring? Okay, fine. Then, just come back here tomorrow. 🙂

P.S. Tomorrow is the last day to enter the fun Scentsy giveaway from Katie Maksimov. Click here to enter if you haven’t already done so.

About Lindsay Ballard

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Jack and Duke). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.

Lindsay, I’d love to see how you would arrange my multi-purpose family room and what size rug(s) you would recommend for it! Though the room above is a bit modern for my personal taste, you clearly did a great job!

I absolutely LOVE this! Great job, the color choices are amazing! I will be moving into a new home soon and have been wanting to do something different and this just inspired me! I do hope that you gals win this challenge, you certainly have my vote.

Great job! The turquoise in the room is heavenly, it’s the perfect punch of color! I’ll definitely be logging on to vote EVERY DAY for you both! Congratulations! ~Ann Marie {athomewithannmarie.blogspot.com}

Hi I am in love with the color. My furniture is very similar besides the turquoise and want to paint my walls that color. But I looked at Sherwin Williams and they name an entire card independent gold. What was the number after the name of the color so I can get the same.

I just found this while looking for examples of the Independent Gold paint color. Did you use the same color in the dining room? The walls look more green in those pics. By the way, absolutely gorgeous – just my taste!

About Makely

Lindsay chronicles her projects, design ideas, and lifestyle tips here at Makely, where she shares tutorials and inspiration. Her DIY designs are bold and graphic, while her spirit is fun and full of color.

Lindsay lives outside of Austin, Texas with her husband (Tom), children (Zack and Emma), and dogs (Jack and Duke). She plays roller derby for the Rockin' City Rollergirls out of Round Rock, Texas.